It is well known in the art to create a building framework composed of wooden elements and to provide thermal insulation within the framework usually contained between those elements and facing panels suitably secured thereto to form walls defining the areas required within the building. One such wooden element is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,937,122 and is formed by bonding a pair of wooden planks to an intermediate expanded foam layer to form a composite assembly. That assembly may subsequently be divided into a number of individual elements for use in a prefabricated panel assembly in the construction of the walls and ceilings of a building. In certain territories such as Canada and the United States such elements are not approved and are not used in load-bearing walls.
Another example of a wooden element is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,481,172 is an insulated spline comprising two outer wooden studs with an insulating core sandwiched therebetween. This type of element is similarly deficient in that it does not have approval for use in load-bearing walls.
In structures of the type indicated the problem of thermal bridging is prevalent in that the stud constitutes a path for heat flow conductance in the building envelope, thus diminishing the overall insulative properties of the structures and in addition can give rise to condensation on the relatively cold (or hot) spots occasioned by the thermal bridging.